The Beginning of The Diamond and the Vengeance E-Book Online

The Diamond and the Vengeance
By Jacques Peuchet
Translated by James Bair

Anyone interested in a full copy in PDF format, please go to the English Plus Donation for the Diamond and Vengeance E-Book page and send us a donation. We will e-mail you an e-book of the whole thing. In addition we will include a second story from Peuchet which inspired one of the major subplots in The Count of Monte Cristo. It is called “A Family Crime.” This is also available in Kindle format on Amazon.com.

 

Author Introduction

The police files are an abyss where everything gets buried. They are darker and more instructional than a confessional because the penitents never come out of the police files. These files hold a registry of everything: vices, crimes, evil acts, infamies, heroism, kindness, generosity, and glaring mistakes. The number of things they know is immense. In the middle of all these hidden stories, I laid my hands on a dossier about an affair whose details were scattered among thirty reports, official notes, police reports, and interrogations. From this dossier I extracted the following adventure which I bequeath to my readers as one of the most unusual they have ever read in these memoirs.

 

An Abandoned Wedding

 

In Paris in 1807 there lived a shoemaker—a simple, self-employed laborer—by the name of François Picaud. This poor devil, a young and handsome boy, was about to marry a gracious, attractive, and lovely young lady who delighted him immensely. As is the case among many of his class who get to choose their own mates, he was convinced she was unique among all women. Among such people, the only way to truly love such a woman is to marry her. As soon as she consented to his proposal, François Picaud, dressed in his Sunday best, hurried to a nearby restaurant to share the news with his friend, the restaurant owner. His friend was a young man of his same age and social rank but somewhat richer than the shoemaker and known for a ferocious jealousy of anyone who seemed to be more successful than he was.

 

Matthew Loupian, born at Nîmes[i] like Picaud, ran a very popular Parisian diner next to Saint-Opportune.[ii] He was already a widower and had two children by his deceased wife. Three regulars—all three natives of the Gard province and all three acquaintances of Picaud—were with him.

 

“Hey, what do you know?” exclaimed the master of the establishment, “Look at Picaud! I have never seen him so excited! They say you are dancing the treilhas!” (The treilles is a popular dance of Languedoc.)

 

“I am doing better than that, my Loupian: I am getting married!”

 

“And whom have you chosen to plant horns[iii] in your head?” asked one of the others named Allut.

 

“It must be the second daughter of your mother-in-law, because in that family you only have to whisper the word, and horns will have poked up through your hat!”

 

They looked at him. Picaud’s jest caused a brief grimace on Allut’s face as the jokers passed by a repairman with worn out shoes.

 

“Teasing aside,” said the restaurateur, “who is the lucky woman, Picaud?”

 

“Mademoiselle de Figoreux.”

 

“Marguerite, the rich heiress?”

 

“She’s the one.”

 

“But she is worth a hundred thousand francs!” cried the café owner in astonishment.

 

“I will pay her back in love and happiness. Anyway my friends, I invite you to the mass at St. Leu and to the dance after the reception which will take place at the Champêtre Ball in Venus’s Grove, Rue des Ours, at the ballroom of the dance master Mr. Latignac, fifth room from the end.”

 

The four friends could say little more than a few insignificant words because the happiness of their comrade stunned them so much.

 

“When is the ceremony?” asked Loupian.

 

“This Tuesday.”

 

“The day after tomorrow?”

 

“I am counting on you. See you soon. I am going to City Hall and then to the priest’s house!”

 

They watched him leave.

 

“Is he happy or what, that silly boy!”

 

“He must have used witchcraft on her.”[iv]

 

“She’s quite a beautiful girl, and quite rich, too!”

 

“To a nobody!”

 

“And this Tuesday is the wedding!”

 

“I promise,” said Loupian, “to delay the celebration.”

 

“How will you do it?”

 

A Short Biographical Note on Jacques Peuchet

Peuchet (1758-1830) was a prolific writer and researcher. He first became famous for his Encyclopedia of Commerce, an early work of economics that caught the attention of Benjamin Franklin, among others. He later became something of a criminologist, writing studies on Suicide (which were translated into German by Karl Marx) and other essays on crime and criminal law. James Madison noted some of Peuchet’s research in his writing. (How many writers could claim to have influenced both the main framer of the Constitution of the United States and the author of The Communist Manifesto?)



[i] Nîmes, the Gard, and Languedoc. These all indicate where Picaud and his friends were from. Nîmes, a city in south-central France, is capital of the province of the Gard. The Gard is one of several provinces that make up the region in southern France known as Languedoc. The words  treilhas and  treilles are the same word; the first in the dialect of Languedoc, the second as spoken in Paris.

[ii] Saint-Opportune. Today this is a pedestrian square in the heart of the shopping and cultural district of Paris. A book published in France in 1846 (just eight years after Peuchet’s book was published) described it as “one of the most distinguished quarters of the capital city.”  Joseph-Henri Reveillé-Parise, Lettres de Gui Patin, Vol. I (Paris: J.-B. Baillière, 1846) li.

[iii] Horns. In Europe, horns on a man’s head signify that his wife has been unfaithful. Jesting about men’s horns continues further along in the conversation.

[iv] Used  witchcraft. In French, this can also mean “be overdressed.” The jealousy of Loupian does suggest the men might blame Picaud’s success on sorcery, but we are also told Picaud was in his Sunday best. A note to one French abridgement believes it meant they were mocking him for being overdressed and out of his class, but  three other commentaries seem to indicate this was a bitter suggestion that Picaud must have won Marguerite’s love in some underhanded manner with black magic.

 


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